Gang rip tennon cheeks

[C & S]

I would like to get tooled up to gang rip the cheeks of a tennon in one pass. I figure that I'll need two flat top grind rip blades and a spacer to go inbetween.

I would rather go with full kerf blades as I figure I have the HP (3) to push them and I find them to be more stable.

Two affordable options are available from mcfeeleys:

?ProductID=LM72-10The only differnce seems to the the teflon coating. Is that worth the extra cost?

Are there any other midpriced 10" FT grind, 1/8" kerf blades that I ought to consider?

Any ideas of how to set up a spacer? I don't know of any local machine shops. for lack of a better idea, I could use a two blade stabilizers and some dado shims.

Does anyone know of a source for a better spacer?

Regards,

Steve

[SonomaProducts.com]

1. If you have a dado shims, do you have a dado set? Is it flat grind? It's pretty common to just use the other blades for this operation. Some people (most) like to use the blades on the wrong side so the fibre breaker is inside, next to the tenon rather than on the outside as designed.

1. They have been brining in CMT blades at the shop I'm working in and sometimes they seem work better than the Forrests. Especially the thin kerf ripper that is marked as "Excellent" for ripping. It is.

2. Use Thrust Washers: I will be doing some research with my machinest guy soon for a similar spacer setup for quick accurate gang ripping on my 18" Woodmaster planer molder (still in the crate but not for long). Currently I am thinking I can use what they call Thrust Washers. I can get them in the right ID's and they come in 1/16, 3/32, 1/8 and 1/4. All with a +/-0.005 tolerance in width. Even with stackup that's acceptable for me. Its 1/200th of an inch each. I think it will be a problem for wider widths so I'm looking into having some tubes cut and percision ground, if I can't locate any off the shelf parts.

[C & S]

Yes. but it's 6" model. That would limit me to 1" tennons, a tad shorter than I prefer.

No.

Thanks. Might you know the model?

Does your molder have a 5/8" shaft? If so, let me know if you locate a supplier.

Thanks,

Steve

[Jeff]

The easiest spacer is one you make yourself. If you want a 3/8" tenon, thickness a piece of wood to that dimension and drill an appropriately-sized hole for the saw's arbor. Mark the spacer for future use. I typically make mine slightly oversize (by about 1/32" or so) to allow final fitting with a shoulder plane.

It's important when you are using a setup like this to use a zero-clearance insert plate for your saw. You'll want as much support for the workpiece as possible, and you don't want the cheek cutoffs flying around the shop.

Jeff

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 17:47:35 -0500, "C & S" scribbled:

I've used 1/2" lexan & other bits of thin plastic, cardboard and paper. Cut out a 2-inch dia. circle with a hole saw on the drill press and then bore out the centre hole to 5/8" (or whatever your arbour diameter is).

Note that a 1/2" spacer won't give you a 1/2" tenon as the carbide saw teeth project further than the sides of the blade. Hence the need to add thinner plastic or cardboard shims.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

[Stephen M]

I didn't think wood would be stable enough.... I'll have to try it

That was my plan. :-)

-Steve

[Stephen M]

I had not thought of those materials. I have some 1/4 (I think) phenolic plate that never because a router table for over a decade ago. That might work well. Glued paper might just be the thing for final adjustment.

Yup. That's why I had planned to possibly use dado shims.

Thanks for the ideas.

-Steve

[Pat Barber]

[SonomaProducts.com]

On the CMt we have the Cabinet Shop 221, Combination 215 and the General 213. The guys use all of them and really like them. I use the General typically and glue up rips directly from the cut and the cross cuts are glassy.

I haven't tried this blade on a deep rip cut like you'll do on a tennon but I'm sure they will perform as good as any thin kerf. Now that I think of it I wonder if a thicker blade would be better for such a tall cut. Probably wouldn't be much different, just a thought.

On my Molder, I'm not sure but I think the shaft is likely at least an inch. I'll crack the packages open this weekend. Regardless, thrust washers come in a wide range of ID's. If I find similar items with greater widths, I let ya know.

[Lawrence Wasserman]

If you go to an industrial supplier like Grainger or MSC you can get ground or "precision ground" 5/8" flat washers, use shims made from a beer can if you need to fine tune the width.

Can't recommend one blade over another except to say that it seems to me most any decent rip blade should be OK, the surfaces will be hidden after assembly.

[bill]

I gotta wonder just how much spindle you have hanging out to fasten all of this to. I suppose that much depends on the width of the tenon, but if it's much over 5/8" thick, I don't think that my saw could support such a stack. You might want to reach down there with a tape, just to check.